ABSTRACT
Convinced that famed Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, with whom she studied in Geneva, was right about children’s cognitive development, Constance Kamii took on the task of reinventing how young children are taught arithmetic. In this chapter I examine how Kamii came to think that almost everything about traditional arithmetic teaching for preschool through Grade Three was wrong, and how she went on to co-author and write the books Piaget, Children, and Number (1976), Physical Knowledge in Preschool Education (1978), Group Games in Early Education (1980), Number in Preschool and Kindergarten (1982), Young Children Reinvent Arithmetic (1985), Young Children Continue to Reinvent Arithmetic, 2nd Grade (1989), and Young Children Continue to Reinvent Arithmetic 3rd Grade (1994), which continue to influence early childhood education today.
